Calithar returned back to the palace from the throne room to freshen up before going to visit the border that was expecting a new batch of iron from a neighbouring kingdom. It was already afternoon when he arrived in the carriage that stopped in front of the palace.
The weight of the day had taken a toll on him. For hours, he had listened to the complaints of the blacksmiths representatives who threatened to lay down their tools if something wasn't done about the poor-quality iron flooding into the kingdom. The matter was more serious than most realized. Iron wasn't just iron — it was the blood of their military, the foundation of their defenses. Weak iron meant weak weapons, and weak weapons meant vulnerability.
